u/Ok-Community-4926

Hear me out.

Most ecommerce teams only start talking to a customer after they've left.

Cart abandoned?
Send an email.

Still no purchase?
Send a discount.

Still nothing?
Retarget them.

But by then, the decision has already happened.

Lately I've been looking at session recordings, customer interviews, and Reddit threads, and most people don't leave randomly.

They hesitate first.

They compare products.

They check shipping.

They open your return policy.

They read reviews.

Sometimes they even Google your brand before coming back.

That's where the buying decision is actually happening.

The cart is just the final symptom.

We've been testing a more behavior-first approach using Markopolo, where the AI reacts to those signals instead of waiting for an abandoned cart event. It's less about "recovering" customers and more about helping them before they disappear.

It made me realize we've probably been optimizing the last step of the journey while ignoring everything that happens before it.

Curious if anyone else has shifted from event-based automation to behavior-based automation.

We spent months asking customers what they wanted.

Surveys.
Feedback forms.
NPS responses.

Got plenty of answers.

Then I spent a weekend reading Reddit threads where people were discussing the exact problem we solve.

The difference was honestly shocking.

Customers tell surveys what they think.

They tell Reddit what they actually feel.

Instead of:

"Price is a concern."

You see:

"I almost bought it but couldn't justify spending another $40."

Instead of:

"Looking at alternatives."

You see:

"I had 3 tabs open for an hour and still couldn't decide."

Those tiny details completely changed how we think about messaging.

Now before launching anything new, I spend more time reading comment sections than dashboards.

Curious if anyone else has had this experience.

What's the most valuable customer insight you've found outside traditional research?

Been seeing more tools lately moving away from traditional flows.

Instead of building sequences manually, the idea is:

each user gets an AI agent that handles their journey

it decides when to reach out
what channel to use
what message to send

based on behavior in real time

I’ve been testing one recently (Markopolo) and it’s honestly a bit weird at first because you’re not “building campaigns” anymore

you’re more setting goals and letting the system figure it out

some results look really promising, especially on cart recovery, but still trying to fully wrap my head around it

part of me feels this is where things are going
part of me feels like giving up control is risky

curious if anyone here has tried something similar

did it actually outperform your usual flows?